FIA Faisalabad has intensified action against human smuggling networks and arrested a key operative of an organized gang involved in the Morocco boat tragedy which claimed the lives of several Pakistani migrants attempting to enter Europe illegally.
An FIA spokesman said here on Sunday that accused Ameer Ali, arrested from Toba Tek Singh, was allegedly involved in smuggling a local, Anas Ali, to Europe through illegal means.
During the initial investigation it revealed that Ameer Ali along with other gang members deceived citizens by promising overseas employment and extorted large sums of money. The gang had previously charged Rs.3.5 million from Anas Ali to facilitate his illegal migration to Spain. Instead of legal channels, the traffickers attempted to send him through a dangerous boat route from Mauritania which ended in disaster. However, Anas Ali survived the incident miraculously.
He said that the initial inquiries also revealed that Amir Ali had strong ties with international traffickers including Mauritania-based smuggler Abdul Ghaffar and an African land route agent Abu Bakar. The gang reportedly exploited Pakistani migrants by arranging perilous sea journeys to Europe. During one such voyage, their overloaded boat met with an accident, leaving migrants stranded at sea and many Pakistani citizens lost their lives in the tragedy.
He further said that the FIA authorities had previously apprehended another gang member Javed Ahmed as part of the ongoing operations against human traffickers.
He said that FIA is committed to dismantling the entire network and in this connection it is actively working with Interpol to track down other suspects involved in it.
FIA teams are also in regular contact with the victims and their families and it is enforcing a zero-tolerance policy against human trafficking, he added.
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